Plant Your Pants – Jannine’s blog for The Country Trust
My involvement with the Country Trust as a Food Discovery Coordinator
As a farmer, I have a love for the countryside, and The Country Trust provides me with the opportunity to teach children more about our amazing land. Through the Food Discovery programme as a coordinator based in Manchester, I work in local schools to reconnect children with the land that sustains us all. I give children the opportunity to take part in a full academic year project where they will learn where foods come from, how it’s grown, and what kind of environment we must have to grow healthy food. This way of learning helps children build their confidence and increases their connection to the natural world.
The importance of soil to me
Healthy soil not only supports my health but also provides continuous support for our planet. If we don’t have access to healthy soil, then the food we rely on will not provide the nutrition our bodies need to maintain a healthy lifestyle, which is important to me.
The top 3 things I would like children to remember about soil
Healthy soil preserves our earth and the very ground we walk on.
Soil is home to billions of organisms.
Healthy soil puts food on our plates, purifies our water and protects us from floods.
Why I believe farmers and the public should get involved in Plant Your Pants
Plant Your Pants raises awareness to both farmers and the public about how we should be thinking about the soil underneath our feet, which we have become more and more disconnected from.
Being a farmer, I have seen first-hand that the relationship between farmers and the community has broken down over the years and believe Plant Your Pants has the potential to build that relationship up again, encourage social change and be used as a tool for our wider communities to get involved in protecting land that is local to us.
How I’m planning to get involved in the ‘Plant Your Pants’ Campaign
Thanks to the HAF (a national project born through Rashford’s Children’s Food Security Campaign) and in partnership with Salford Council, we have secured funding for the local community that will enable us to run Plant Your Pants activity sessions at our farm in April and July, where my three children will also be participating to learn more on how to protect our soil and planet.
How I believe Plant Your Pants could help my local community
In Salford, we live near one of the largest areas of peat bogs in England. It’s a place of beauty, built up of organic matter and peat soil. Sadly, it is under threat. Plant Your Pants will help us to keep building relationships with our future children within Greater Manchester and provide education about the importance of soil and how Chat Moss (an area that covers 30% of Salford) is a major green lung for the city that needs to be looked after.
The impact the Plant Your Pants could have
Not only does this campaign provide a fun and exciting opportunity for children to understand what climate change is and how we can help by getting involved and understanding more about our soil, but it also provides scope to bring about positive change than can influence our children through building a climate-conscious mindset through our own actions and habits for future generations to come.